THE DEVIL'S REJECTS

Unacceptable behavior, and plenty of it

By BRIAN THOMAS     November 18, 2005

Did you ever wonder what happened to the Sawyer family following THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE? I mean, the sequel shows us certain members of the psychotic cannibal clan set up in another location with a few new relatives thrown in, but we're not sure exactly how they got there. For his more serious sequel to his 2003 hit HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES, Rob Zombie takes that premise and runs with it. The cult of Dr. Satan is barely mentioned as the sequel is almost more of a Pekinpah tribute crossed with a sick spaghetti western ala CUT-THROATS NINE than it is a horror movie.



Alerted to the horrors of the House of 1000 Corpses, the law enforcement troops of Ruggsville, Oklahoma, converge for a raid. In the ensuing gun battle, Mother Firefly (now played by POLICE ACADEMY's Leslie Easterbrook, taking over for Karen Black) is arrested, and her offspring Otis (Bill Moseley, now mysteriously cured of his albinism and looking more like Manson) and Baby (Sheri Moon, aka Mrs. Zombie) go on the lam. Their half brother Tiny (Matthew McGrory) is missing in action, only to reappear at a key moment later in the movie. They rendezvous with Baby's father Captain Spaulding (Sid Haig) at an out of the way motel, planning to hide out at the bordello of Spaulding's half brother Charlie Altamont (Ken Foree of DAWN OF THE DEAD). Of course, they make time for a bit of torture and murder along the way whenever they can.



Meanwhile, Sheriff Wydell (William Forsythe) is on the warpath to hunt down the killers, having lost his brother George (Tom Towles) in one of the previous film's standout death scenes. Half mad already, Wydell rejects the rulebook in his pursuit of the Devil's Rejects, hiring a pair of vicious bounty hunters (Danny Trejo and Dallas Page) to help him track down and capture the trio not to submit for trial, but to submit to his own personal process of retribution.



Throughout, Zombie does a remarkable thing, subtly playing with viewer identification and character identification as well. After showing us the Fireflies commit crimes more heinous than anything we've seen from them in CORPSES, there's a point where we only see scenes of them being funny and compassionate, with even the cartoonish Spaulding removing his clown makeup to reveal a human (though still bonkers) face. Meanwhile Wydell is shown being ever more insane and sadistic. In the climax, the Rejects are put in the same place as so many of their victims have been, and the finale is a morose slow-motion sequence set to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Freebird". Despite all the film's sadism and bloodshed, this should remind us all that there's always another point of view.



Zombie fills the screen with a stunning cast of cult favorites, with E.G. Daily, Priscilla Barnes, Brian Posehn, Michael Berryman, P.J. Soles, Mary Warenov, Ginger Lynn, Geoffrey Lewis, Daniel Roebuck and Steve Railsback popping up in small but impressive roles. He's definitely a student of psychotronic film, and on his commentrak makes sure to point out everyone involved. The Rejects themselves Haig, Moon and Moseley forego the amusing video menu performances from CORPSES, but sit in for a second commentrak, which is more entertaining for their personalities than it is informative, as Zombie already covered most of their material.



The unrated edition boasts both 5.1 Surround and 6.1 DTS ES soundtracks, which are appropriate for a film whose audio punch is so important. It also offers blooper and deleted footage reels, and full length versions of many of the video artifacts of the film, including Captain Spaulding's TV commercials, a Buck Owens performance glimpsed on a TV set, and an episode of "The Morris Green Show" in which Dan Roebuck portrays a lame and disconnected local talk show host. There's also some behind-the-scenes footage paying tribute to tall actor McGrory, who died shortly after the film's release.



So where's the Making-Of documentary? On disc 2, pardner! Though broken up into several parts to avoid paying the crew feature rates, 30 DAYS IN HELL is actually a feature worthy of separate release. It includes auditions, locations, stunts, etc. But what it shows us more than anything is how quickly Zombie has learned his craft, and how much more seasoned and assured he is with his second feature.



Copyright © 2005 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS.

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